PRINCE Harry gave up the chance to fly in a Spitfire today to make sure a 95-year-old Battle of Britain veteran wouldn’t miss out.

Harry was due to be a passenger as around 40 Spitfires, Hurricanes and Bristol Blenheim bombers took part in the biggest flight of wartime aircraft over Britain since 1945.

Harry with Tom (Image: Getty Images)

But the two-seater plane he was set to fly in broke down, leaving only three Spitfires with space for passengers.

And Harry, on his 31st birthday, stepped aside to make sure former Spitfire and Hurricane pilot Tom Neil didn’t miss out.

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The other two places went to wounded servicemen. Former Para Nathan Foster suffered severe leg injuries in a bomb blast in Afghanistan in 2011 and RAF technician Corporal Alan Robinson lost a leg in a motorbike accident.

The flight was staged to mark the 75th anniversary of Battle of Britain Day, September 15, 1940, when the Nazis launched the biggest offensive of their failed campaign to beat the RAF.

Spitfires, Hurricanes and Blenheims gathered together from all over the world and took off in waves from Goodwood Aerodrome in West Sussex before heading for airfields across southern England.